Live streaming content includes channels or feeds with scheduled content (e.g., premium movie channels) and live broadcasts (e.g., sporting events, news, etc.). Unlike video-on-demand (VOD) content, live streaming content often does not have a distinct end point and may continue indefinitely. In addition, VOD content may be buffered in client devices well in advance of the client playhead (i.e., the content fragment currently being rendered by the client). This is typically not the case for live content because of the constraint that the delay between the live playhead (i.e., the latest content fragment available) and the client playhead be as low as possible.
Because content services that provide live content often prioritize minimizing the delay between the live and client playheads, this has the potential to result in buffering events in which client devices run out of content fragments to play back. This is particularly the case for clients that maintain short buffers. Each buffering event for a given client device introduces additional delay between the live and client playheads (beyond the inherent latency associated with making the content available via a streaming protocol). For live content having a relatively long duration, e.g., a live sporting event, some client devices may fall several minutes behind the live playhead. Not only might this negatively affect viewer experience, it might also result in lack of compliance with the provisions of service level agreements.